OUR OWN NEW HOME
[54] IT must not be supposed that because of our dwellings
being unsightly on the outside, they are rough within,
for such is not the case. Many of the settlers, as did
father, brought over glass for the windows, therefore
we are not forced to put up with oiled paper, as are a
great many people living in this New World.
It was partly the dampness inside our homes, so
Governor Winthrop believed, which caused the sickness
in Charlestown, and therefore it was that my father
insisted we should have a floor of wood, instead of
striving to get along with bare ground which had been
beaten hard. Our floor is made of planks, roughly
hewn, it is true, but nevertheless it serves to keep our
feet from the ground. We have on the door real iron
hinges, instead of.leather, or the skins of animals, as we
saw in Salem.
Save for the roughness of the floor and the walls,
the inside of my father's house is much the same as we
had in England, for he, like all of Governor Winthrop's
company who were able to do so, brought over the
furnishings of the old home, and while some of the
things look sadly out of place here, they provide us
with a certain comfort which would have passed
unheeded in the other country, because there we were not
[55] much better off in this world's goods than were our
neighbors.
Here, when I see a table made only of rough boards
spread upon trestles, I can get much pleasure out of
the knowledge that we brought with us those tables
which we had been using in England, and, when our
dinner is spread, save for the difference in the food, I
can well fancy myself in the old home. We have our
ware of pewter and of copper, and our trencher bowls
are of the best that can be hewn from maple knots.
In order that the walls and crevices, filled with moss
and plastered over with clay, may not offend the eye,
[56] mother has put up all the hangings which she brought
with her, and these, with some skins my father bought
at Salem, hide entirely that which is so unsightly in
other dwellings.
Contrasting our home with many which we saw in
Salem, or in Charlestown, I am come to believe my
lines are truly cast in pleasant places, and I strive to be
thankful to God for having given me the father which
I have.
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